Merry was put in full restraints because she was pulling
out tubes, the catheter, everything connected to her. In her delirium, she
kicked a nurse in the face.

Merry believes it was one of the doctors in the ER who
suspected she had been poisoned by her husband; this doctor reckoned her
husband put antifreeze in his wife's food, for an extended period of time.

Merry began to improve, according to a consultation evaluation
by Ahsan Y. Khan, an MD at Via Cristi Regional Medical Center. "Mrs.
Protheroe agreed to a mental status examination. The patient denied
any suicidal or homicidal thoughts." In the interrogative, Merry was
asked if a family member could have poisoned her.

One night, Merry heard police talking outside her hospital
room. "A really scary part of this was my family wasn't around on the
third detail (at night) when the uniforms came in to check on me to see
if I was going to live. If I died, which was certain, I heard them say,
they could arrest my dear husband of 35 years and/or my granddaughter, one
of my best friends in the world."

After nine-days in the hospital, Merry Kay Protheroe went
home. To date, no criminal charges have been pressed against any of her
family.

In 1993, the FDA, under the Freedom of Information Act
revealed 92 symptoms caused by aspartame; Weakness is No.10, Blood glucose
disorders are No. 63, Change in hair or nails is No. 66, Many lumps present
is No. 71 and Death is No. 77.

Since Merry has stopped using aspartame, she is stronger,
her glucose levels are more stable, her hair is growing thicker, lumps on
her arm have dried up and fallen off and she is alive.

Like Merry Kay, Charles (Chuck) Fleming was a heavy user
of chemically-sweetened cola, drinking, every day, 10 Diet Cokes with aspartame.
At night, Chuck switched to bourbon and diet Sprite, also with aspartame.

For those unfamiliar with the methanol (wood alcohol) content
of aspartame, it is 10% of the molecule.

The aspartame manufacturers assure 'users' there is more
methanol in a glass of tomato juice than in their product. The truth is,
the methanol in aspartame is 'free' meaning the methanol is unaccompanied
by ethanol, nature's antidote for methanol. In natural food sources of methanol,
such as tomato or orange juice, ethanol is found at concentrations of 5
to 500,000 times that of the toxin. The most authoritative information
about the methanol in aspartame is from Dr. Woodrow Monte, retired Professor
of Food Science.*

The Innocent Woman

Although Diane Fleming passed a polygraph three times with
'flying colors', she was arrested, tried and convicted for 'spiking' her
husband's Gatorade with windshield washer fluid, containing methanol. Sentenced
to 30 years for murder and 20 years for adulteration, Diane has been imprisoned
in the Fluvanna Correctional Center, in Troy, Virginia, for four years.

An NFT1 test(gas chromophotography) or a Raman Microscope
test can prove accurately where the methanol in the Gatorade bottles originated.
The Chesterfield, VA. police have told Diane's counsel, David B. Hargett,
they do not have to release the Gatorade bottles, still in evidence.

A year-and-a-half after Diane was convicted, her best friend,
Betty Rickmond learned, surfing the Internet, that aspartame contains lethal
methanol.

Because of an antiquated law in the Commonwealth of Virginia,
after a defendant is convicted, new evidence cannot be used in post conviction
appeals to prove innocence. In Diane's case, this means no expert opinion
can be brought in to establish the distinct possibility that Chuck Fleming
died from aspartame poisoning.

Diane Fleming's appeals for freedom are coming to an end.
Diane's writ of habeas corpus (very few cases even get that far) was rejected
by the Virginia Circuit Court and the Virginia Supreme Court. If the appeal
had been won, Diane would have been granted an evidentiary hearing or a
new trial where information to prove her innocence is permitted.

On a personal note, this writer, a supporter of Diane's
for more than three years, flew from LA to Richmond for the oral argument
to the Supreme Court of Virginia.

Prisoners do not attend their hearing appeals, but I was
able to meet Diane for the first time, at the jail.

Diane is a very brave, strong woman. She survives "lousy
food and not enough of it", standing in "pill line" to get
medicine, and "shakedowns" as prison guards go into your room/cell
and throw everything out into the hall. Most of all, Diane has lost the
pleasure of rearing her daughter, Meagan, now 13 years old.

Diane Fleming's husband, Chuck Fleming became ill after
playing basketball on a hot June Sunday afternoon; it was that Sunday he
drank his first bottle of Gatorade. He and Diane bought the Gatorade to
mix with creatine, a 'muscle-enhancing' supplement Chuck wanted to try.
Note, Chuck used the creatine inappropriately by not drinking any water
and by using 3 times the recommended amount, which can cause a dangerous
'creatine blast' according to Dr. Terjung, Professor of Physiology at Missouri
University.

Chuck told Diane he thought he had 'a little flu bug';
he ate only ice cream for dinner and went to bed early. Not until the next
day did Chuck agree to go to the ER where he was diagnosed with the identical
symptoms as Merry Kay Protheroe-- acute renal failure, confusion, combatant,
vomiting, dehydration, delirium and diagnosed with the same fatal sickness--
severe metabolic acidosis, methanol poisoning.

Important to know is it was Diane who first called the
police because one of the doctors at the hospital told her Chuck had died
from methanol poisoning. It was Diane who showed the detectives the (sealed)
windshield washer fluid on the garage shelf and the Gatorade bottles in
the refrigerator, where her then 7-year old daughter had access. Jeffrey,
Diane's son was graduating from high school the next Thursday and Diane's
parents were driving up from Missouri for the occasion. Diane had just bought
Chuck woodworking table to surprise him for Father's Day.

Six years after Chuck's death, five of Diane's closest
friends and I listened to counsel, David B. Hargett's 10 minute appeal to
the Supreme Court of Virginia.

The Court rejected the appeal; a Petition for Rehearing
has been filed.

In his latest letter to Diane, Hargett writes: "I
feel we have a strong argument, but the Supreme Court rarely changes its
mind."

The strongest argument and a primary reason Diane Fleming
was wrongly convicted is "prosecutorial misconduct", legally called
a "Brady violation."

The Smoking Gun

One can easily see Krystal Kleer windshield washer fluid
is blue; when one adds this windshield washer fluid to a lemon-lime Gatorade,
the flavor Chuck drank, the liquid turns green and smells bad. An affidavit
from Virginia state toxicologist, Joseph J. Saady, swears he found no blue
dye in the Gatorade bottles, but he decided not to send the bottles out
for further forensic testing. The prosecution hid this exculpatory(proving
innocence)evidence from the defense.

Circuit Court Judge Cleo Powell, also the trial judge who
heard counsel David B.Hargett argue the habeas the first time around, sided
with the prosecution. Powell ruled the windshield washer evidence was not
exculpatory because the prosecution, at trial, never argued the windshield
washer fluid killed Chuck.

Yet, in the one-day trial, the transcript shows 37 references
to the windshield washer fluid and the windshield washer fluid, linked to
the Gatorade bottles, is cited 113 times.

In the pending Petition for Rehearing, David B. Hargett
informs the Court that Diane Fleming's case is not the first time Diane
Fleming's prosecutor, Warren Van Schuch hid evidence. The Fourth Circuit
Court of Appeals, in VA, admonished Van Schuch "This prosecution team
displayed a disconcerting lack of respect for its sole responsibility to
ensure 'that justice shall be done', as opposed to merely winning the case."

In another case, prosecutor Von Schuch's misconduct resulted
in a reversal. "The Court finds that Van Schuch acted improperly and
in violation of prosecutorial obligations."

In a best possible scenario, Diane will be granted an evidentiary
hearing or a new trial where experts on methanol poisoning can testify;
among them are, endocrinologist, Dr. H.J. Roberts ("Aspartame Disease:
An Ignored Epidemic"), neurosurgeon, Dr.Russell Blaylock ("Excitotoxins:
The Taste That Kills"), toxicoligist Dr. Hildegarde Staninger, Dr.
Janet Hull ("Sweet Poison") and former Judge Mary Nash Stoddard,
consumer advocate.

Most importantly, the Gatorade bottles, still in evidence,
must be obtained for testing.

The injustice done to Diane Fleming must be rectified.

Carol Guilford is an LA-based writer and author of "The
New Cook's Cookbook", "THE Diet Book", "Carol Guilford's
Main Course Cookbook" and "The Easiest Cookbook."